Material Shortage & Price Trend Report (June 2018)

Since last year, price increases and extended lead times have been witnessed across many electronic component manufacturing segments. This report provides a preview and analysis of some heated segments such as MLCC, resistor, MOSFET and NOR Flash. A preliminary market overview was performed, and major players were analyzed in every segment to provide a whole picture.

Though MLCC and resistor prices have been increasing over the last two years, the reasons behind this price surge phenomenon are not all the same.

MLCC price increase is majorly driven by the significant demand from the automotive and smartphone industries. The current capacity is unable to keep up with a substantially higher demand. Adding to this, key players such as TDK and Kyocera exited the general MLCC market to focus on the more profitable electric automotive industry, further exacerbating the situation. Even worse, Murata decided to cut 50% of production capacity for their conventional MLCC line in 2018. Prices of raw materials such as nickel, copper and palladium have also been climbing since the end of 2015, putting more cost pressure on MLCC manufacturers. Fortunately, Taiyo Yuden, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Yageo and Fenghua Advanced Technology are all going to expand their capacity. The supply and demand imbalance should get better by the end of this year.